Speaking on the sidelines of a forum in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Rais, who is a PPBM member, said he did not think issuing government press statements in Mandarin was appropriate.

“The national language, which is Malay, is sufficient. This (issuing press releases in Mandarin) has never been done before,” he said.

Rais said in the over 40 years he served in the government, only Malay and English were used as allowed under parliamentary procedure.

Bloke was once the Minister for Information, Communications and Culture under the Najib government's 1st term (2009 - 2013). He was/is particularly sensitive about Malaysians using Bahasa.

Once in a press interview during his ministerial days he chewed a Malaysian reporter, a Chinese of course, for asking him questions in English. He was so disdainful in the telling off of that young bloke that the poor frightened and embarrassed reporter must have felt as if he was wallowing at the bottom of a pit in front of his colleagues - aiyoyo, where to put his face lah?

But Rais Yatim was correct in that Malaysian reporters regardless of their ethnicity should have been able to ask questions in Malay.

But after that rather fierce talk-down, Rais switched immediately to English and (perhaps kesian a bit for the young punk) told him he could now ask his questions in English, saying "I am now in a different mode", wakakaka.

I am not in the least surprised that Rais Yatim would emerge to chew Lim Guan Eng off. For younger generation Chinese Malaysians to speak in English when among other Malaysians of multi-ethnicity would already be a wee touchy but to do so in Mandarin, aiyoyo amah! But for a minister to deliver his policy or whatever in Mandarin, wakakaka - as blogger Patrick Teoh would exclaim as per his blog's name, Niamah.

Malaysia is a relatively small nation heavily dependent on international trade, especially in 2018, where the most important currency in the world is Information.

Malaysia needs to be open and skilled on the usage of multiple international languages, and English and Mandarin are clearly such.

Bahasa Malaysia is the National Language, but 1960's and 1970's-style politically motivated exclusion of other languages is NOT going to help Malaysia prosper.

Rais Yatim is one such dinosaur. Rumour has it that he is Mahathir's favoured candidate for Dewan Rakyat. He parachuted into Pakatan Harapan about 1 week before the election, in a clear act of opportunism.

I hope you know the difference between Arabic and Jawi script. But if it is indeed Arabic then where is that sign? In kelantan or Terengganu? I couldn't give a shit then. In Penang we have road signs in Bahasa, English, Jawi, Chinese and Tamil

Buried in Oz land...but continuing endlessly with instigating and shit stirring kuat kuat to cause havoc for the populace over here, no wonder unable to go the ground to see Jawi words on those road signs. Just stop stuffing in so much dedak and raise your head once in awhile to see what's going on.

Jawi letters are typically found only in Arabic and Arabic loan words. And the Ketuanans went onto a huge hue and cry over a para of Chinese wordings in a personal FB which specifically addressed queries raised by Chinese reporters which necessitate reply in the same language. The Ketuanans went berserk and brought in issue of Constitution...so is Jawi in the Constitution ? This reminds me of a Sci-Fi story whereby the government of the day had successfully brainwashed the entire 80% of its people to hate the color blue...anything blue is vile and totally unacceptable to these Ketuanans and that's how it came about that they will even attack their own as well as the 'others' should the victims happened to suffer from sudden heart attack and went blue with apoplexy....these knee-jerk extremists went berserk and descended to strangle these unfortunate victims of heart attack to stamp out the color blue from their faces.

So Chinese here be warned....new malaysia ke, old malaysia ke...just beware not to have heart attack in public...otherwise you risks having the breathe strangled out of you while you struggle to bring in oxygen just to live.

It will be poetic justice if the Ketuanans were to strangle the Chinese running dogs instead, wakakkaka.

About Me

Just a bloke interested in the socio-political whatnots around the world, particularly those in Malaysia. Loves a laugh or/and story or two, or more, but loves civility and courtesy much more, especially in politics